tomofhyrule wrote: »evidently there are more people who spam [E] through the dialogue than people who take their time to see the story. I guess if they want to save space in the game, they can just get rid of all of those pesky voice actors since evidently nobody cares about the story amirite?
On my main account, I have chosen one alt that i'll play besides my main. She hasn't really done much in game, so i won't need achievements to remind me.
I'm currently going to run her through rivenspire/greymoor/markarth so she can experience the markarth epilogue before it goes away, because i love those characters and am extremely sad that particular epilogue is going to be unreachable for any alt going forward.
The rest of my alts, several of which are as old as my main, will be parked until at least after high isle.
I have a couple other FTP accounts. I think I will make my "alts" be one character from each of those accounts, so I can play through the world again "fresh" the only way it will be possible.
alberichtano wrote: »On my main account, I have chosen one alt that i'll play besides my main. She hasn't really done much in game, so i won't need achievements to remind me.
I'm currently going to run her through rivenspire/greymoor/markarth so she can experience the markarth epilogue before it goes away, because i love those characters and am extremely sad that particular epilogue is going to be unreachable for any alt going forward.
The rest of my alts, several of which are as old as my main, will be parked until at least after high isle.
I have a couple other FTP accounts. I think I will make my "alts" be one character from each of those accounts, so I can play through the world again "fresh" the only way it will be possible.
But then, if you want houses, pets, mounts etc, you will have to buy them again. *adjusts my tinfoil hat a bit*
That's the thing about doing content a second time though, it's not fresh anymore and it won't ever be again, there's also an argument to be said on how many times people replay content like quests and for those who do how many actually listen to the story a second time.
silvereyes wrote: »So here's a hopeful thought: if the work required to fix zone guide and NPC reactions can happen server-side / database-side, could the developers still be fixing those over the following work week despite the ongoing Stadia certification?
It wouldn't be the first time they've slipped in some stealth changes between the last PTS incremental and launch, and they don't have to recertify the game client every time they do a server maintenance.
I admit this is probably wishful thinking, but I'm still trying to wrap my head around the concept of them launching with broken dialog and zone guide. I've never known ZOS to be irrational. If the whole point of deleting character data was to prepare for an upcoming surge in player activity, that seems an odd time to leave the game in such a noticeably broken state.
proprio.meb16_ESO wrote: »I fear the surge in player activity and broken things wont be enough of a problem... new players wont be able to fully evaluate the issue until they decide to create an alt, and part of old players will not care, for their alts are not questing at all or they're interested just in getting skill points with them.
The immediately affected players are those of us loving the lore, loving to quest, still concerned about the change and still adding thoughts to this thread... people with one main that has done almost everything (and plans for new questing alts, or with already questing alts running around in Tamriel), and people who has diversified their playthoughs and play their toons in parallel (probably the most affected of all).
SilverBride wrote: »
Please consider putting this on hold.
karthrag_inak wrote: »SilverBride wrote: »
Please consider putting this on hold.
This one doubts anyone relevant is actually reading these posts, despite many customers' anxiety and disgust with this change to a system they have often paid extra money to engage in (after all, it costs money to get all character slots, yes?).
Unfortunately, AwA is obviously a done deal, and completely unavoidable, unless someone can find a bug or unintended consequence that ZOS would consider game-breaking. Something equivalent to what caused 2-player mounts to be postponed after arriving on PTS last year. If such a thing does not exist, this "feature" will be published, despite the majority of these feedback threads' participants' sentiments against it. Apparently neither gimped character stories and interactions nor a "handful" of broken quests qualify in ZOS' eyes.
I've been playing around on PTS, unfortunately it's on EU so I couldn't migrate my live toons. I've been playing through Greymoor and got up to a point where NPCs had random dialogue about the Queen's murder. I rolled another alt level 3, and went to the same spot. Those NPCs are definitely tied to quest stages because they didn't appear for my level 3 alt. If they can have NPC specific dialogue fire off quest stages, why can't they do that for any NPC dialogue tied to achievements? All they have to do is move those quest side, and the world would at least make sense again.
alberichtano wrote: »I've been playing around on PTS, unfortunately it's on EU so I couldn't migrate my live toons. I've been playing through Greymoor and got up to a point where NPCs had random dialogue about the Queen's murder. I rolled another alt level 3, and went to the same spot. Those NPCs are definitely tied to quest stages because they didn't appear for my level 3 alt. If they can have NPC specific dialogue fire off quest stages, why can't they do that for any NPC dialogue tied to achievements? All they have to do is move those quest side, and the world would at least make sense again.
Wouldn't that require the same kind of data as the achievements do now?
silvereyes wrote: »So here's a hopeful thought: if the work required to fix zone guide and NPC reactions can happen server-side / database-side, could the developers still be fixing those over the following work week despite the ongoing Stadia certification?
It wouldn't be the first time they've slipped in some stealth changes between the last PTS incremental and launch, and they don't have to recertify the game client every time they do a server maintenance.
I admit this is probably wishful thinking, but I'm still trying to wrap my head around the concept of them launching with broken dialog and zone guide. I've never known ZOS to be irrational. If the whole point of deleting character data was to prepare for an upcoming surge in player activity, that seems an odd time to leave the game in such a noticeably broken state.
If they are, why didn't they just tell us, either in PTS notes as something known to be an issue but being worked on, addressed in the Q&A, or answered in this feedback thread or, other places this issue has been brought up? Why the silent treatment and lack of communication? This could be alleviated if they do plan to fix this and would simply tell us. I even made a separate thread for it, nothing but silence.
Edit - If they would communicate that they are fixing this, I would stop being a squeaky wheel about it. Even better, I would edit every single one of my comments in places other than this thread to stop providing negative news to the community. Hell, I might even laud them for deciding to communicate because it would show they care about our concerns.
karthrag_inak wrote: »SilverBride wrote: »
Please consider putting this on hold.
This one doubts anyone relevant is actually reading these posts, despite many customers' anxiety and disgust with this change to a system they have often paid extra money to engage in (after all, it costs money to get all character slots, yes?).
Unfortunately, AwA is obviously a done deal, and completely unavoidable, unless someone can find a bug or unintended consequence that ZOS would consider game-breaking. Something equivalent to what caused 2-player mounts to be postponed after arriving on PTS last year. If such a thing does not exist, this "feature" will be published, despite the majority of these feedback threads' participants' sentiments against it. Apparently neither gimped character stories and interactions nor a "handful" of broken quests qualify in ZOS' eyes.
Which makes me wonder, they know those who care enough to listen to the stories and engage in them are those who immerse themselves into the world on their alts. Since they seem to not care about how people like us interact with the game world on alts, again I ask, why bother with writers and voice actors? If they seem to want to appeal to those who would not care if the game breaks the 4th wall between player and the game world because they know those people likely just click through the quests and don't bother with the details, why even bother spending the extra money on these stories anymore. I just don't get it. Why leave the game broken like this for players who want the immersion and the voice acting and the stories? How can I even leave my game sound turned up and headphones on when NPCs will hail all my alts equally whether they did certain quests or not? It's so obtrusive and jarring. I'm really begging ZOS and the 8 Divines and all the powers that be to please decouple random NPC dialogue in the open world from quest achievements! Please give back achievement only quests for our alts too while you're at it.
proprio.meb16_ESO wrote: »Yeah, thats the main issue and the reason we're sadly gonna lose coherence in alts whatever it takes.
The balance of space gained from awa would be zero if a parallel per-character quest stage is introduced, in that case it's less work just to get the achievement itself back to be per-character (which is what zos has in fact done with museum quests)... there's no easy workaround to this unless a lot of things are completely redesigned and this ofc won't happen anytime soon
I wish there was someone higher up I could get in communication with. I can't believe Bethesda, creator of the Elder Scrolls series, is even allowing this. Do they even know?
tos wrote:If You have any questions about these Terms of Service or otherwise need to contact ZeniMax for any reason, You can reach us at:
ZeniMax Media Inc. 1370 Piccard Drive Rockville, Maryland 20850 USA
Attn: ZeniMax Customer Support
Website: help.bethesda.net
Telephone:
From North America dial 1-844-ZENIMAX (1-844-936-4629);
From outside the U.S., +1-410-220-2853 (International rates may apply, please contact Your carrier for details)
SilverBride wrote: »The bottom line is that losing our characters' individual histories is very distressing for many of us. Some may not understand this but it is bringing up very real emotions for many players, myself included. We put a lot of ourselves into developing our characters as individuals. They all have their own personalities and the thought of losing that is heartbreaking.
Then there is the fact that we lose replayability. I've enjoyed the story every time I've played through it, the same way we enjoy a favorite movie we've seen multiple times. I want to be able to play through every quest and fight every world boss and enjoy every delve and dolmen and public dungeon myself, but having these all show as complete on the map will make this very difficult to track.
Please consider putting this on hold.
Araneae6537 wrote: »Not being able to fully do quests and have all NPC interactions possible on new characters, having the world prize or revile them for choices made with other characters, completely unacceptable, game-breaking and, for me, heart-breaking.
silvereyes wrote: »So here's a hopeful thought: if the work required to fix zone guide and NPC reactions can happen server-side / database-side, could the developers still be fixing those over the following work week despite the ongoing Stadia certification?
It wouldn't be the first time they've slipped in some stealth changes between the last PTS incremental and launch, and they don't have to recertify the game client every time they do a server maintenance.
I admit this is probably wishful thinking, but I'm still trying to wrap my head around the concept of them launching with broken dialog and zone guide. I've never known ZOS to be irrational. If the whole point of deleting character data was to prepare for an upcoming surge in player activity, that seems an odd time to leave the game in such a noticeably broken state.
karthrag_inak wrote: »Hey, silver lining time. No more :
- "You have no idea how long I've been looking for you"
- "Dragons...In your own homeland...."
- "How would you like to do something worthwhile?"
-sigh-. Yeah, this one is not appeased either.
But, you see, Microsoft didn't buy a single game, they bought a company with games portfolios. Which, I guess, they will in the long run make available on their Game Pass. Whether a single game of the portfolio survives is probable of little interest to them, as long as the revenues from the portfolio as a whole justify the purchase price. Do they interfere with the development of ESO? I don't know, but I don't think so. Will they interfere, when ESO flounders? Most likely only to the extent that they will set benchmarks as to the numbers of players and revenue that Zenimax must meet.It's so frustrating and perplexing. Where did all the money from MS go? If the game is so profitable to be aquired by them, then why don't they invest back in it, instead of literally butchering years of the playerbase progression and future replayability in order to cut corners... [...]
Araneae6537 wrote: »This, so much. Just like that the game changed from being a wonderful escape and help for me to contributing to a negative mental state. I’m not bashing anyone or anything. I’m saying how much I love the game, the world, the characters and how I interact with all of those with my different characters, each of which are important to me with their own stories which have evolved with which quests they’ve done and the characters and world they’ve interacted with along the way.
SilverBride wrote: »Araneae6537 wrote: »Not being able to fully do quests and have all NPC interactions possible on new characters, having the world prize or revile them for choices made with other characters, completely unacceptable, game-breaking and, for me, heart-breaking.
That is the worst part for me and I feel like crying myself.
ESO is not just a game. It's an actual world full of real people where we can make friends and escape the stresses of these past 2 years. Part of that escape is creating characters that we can "become" for a little while when we log in.
I do realize that our characters aren't "real" but the relaxation and escape they provide is.
My heart is breaking.
With the database’s overall footprint reduced, it will more performant across the board, which may manifest itself in faster load screens and improved performance on other database-heavy operations. Most importantly, however, this change helps keep the game performant as we continue to add new content and achievements in the future.
Comrade_Ogilvy wrote: »
I wish there was someone higher up I could get in communication with. I can't believe Bethesda, creator of the Elder Scrolls series, is even allowing this. Do they even know?
From TOS:tos wrote:If You have any questions about these Terms of Service or otherwise need to contact ZeniMax for any reason, You can reach us at:
ZeniMax Media Inc. 1370 Piccard Drive Rockville, Maryland 20850 USA
Attn: ZeniMax Customer Support
Website: help.bethesda.net
Telephone:
From North America dial 1-844-ZENIMAX (1-844-936-4629);
From outside the U.S., +1-410-220-2853 (International rates may apply, please contact Your carrier for details)
There's also an email for complaints buried deeply in that, too: ODRnotice@zenimax.com
Good luck; the way the tos is written expect to be 'thanked for your feedback' - I leave it to your imagination to work out exactly what that means.
CombatCoati wrote: »alberichtano wrote: »I've been playing around on PTS, unfortunately it's on EU so I couldn't migrate my live toons. I've been playing through Greymoor and got up to a point where NPCs had random dialogue about the Queen's murder. I rolled another alt level 3, and went to the same spot. Those NPCs are definitely tied to quest stages because they didn't appear for my level 3 alt. If they can have NPC specific dialogue fire off quest stages, why can't they do that for any NPC dialogue tied to achievements? All they have to do is move those quest side, and the world would at least make sense again.
Wouldn't that require the same kind of data as the achievements do now?
As quests are still tracked per character, they should be able to change the checks which are still against achievements to be against quest completion without producing additional data.